I know that for many people Christmas ends on Dec. 26th or after 12 days of Christmas at Epiphany but some of us celebrate all 40 days of Christmas season with beautiful music culminating at the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, Feb. 2nd (also called Purification of Mary; Candlemas). And I just received a lovely letter from a wonderful music teacher, Dr. Susan Treacy, who has a new book that is on its way to me to fill the gaps in my education: The Music of Christendom. She shared a lovely poem that I cannot just keep to myself. Here's the excerpt from her letter:
I’d like to end my letter with the following poem to wish you blessings throughout the entire season of Christmas, from December 25th to February 2nd. The Middle English lyrics below date from about 1400 and were written by the composer Thomas Ashwell (ca. 1478 – after 1513 (possibly 1527?). They can be found in Sloane Ms. 2593 at the British Library in London. Five and a half centuries later Benjamin Britten (1913-76) would use them for one of the carols in his Ceremony of Carols (1942), for treble choir and harp. All the major feast days of Christmastide —hidden in their Middle English clothing—are mentioned in the poem.
Wolcum, Wolcum
Wolcum be thou hevenè king
[1] in fere, together.
[2] lefe, dear.
I love being Catholic. We begin a new liturgical year in Dec. for Advent, celebrate Christmas for 40 days, then begin preparing for the 40 penitential days of Lent followed by the Easter season, which is 50 days, and ending with the feast of Pentecost. This season is the longest, one for growth. Love how it ties into the seasons, the cycles of feasting and fasting. May Christmas joy remain with you all throughout the New Year!
NB: We participated in a Gregorian Chant workshop with Susan in 2018 while she was still at Ave Maria University. She's retired now so I hope she's open to offering workshops to parish choirs.
5 comments:
I didn't think I would understand Middle English, (previous exposures showed as much) but I was able to read this poem and (mostly) understand it. It almost feels like "modified Middle English."
Yes, this poem is quite understandable. I have another that's taped to my kitchen cupboard :)
I enjoyed this poem! It's fun trying to figure out the Middle English. I will have to look for the Benjamin Britten piece with this. That sounds fantastic!
Dr. Treacy led our schola at Franciscan University my first year--hopefully she had a better welcome at Ave Maria, because we schola folk were pretty niche at Franciscan. :) She was very knowledgeable and it doesn't surprise me at all that she's written a book!
Thanks for sharing, and for the delightful poem. Happy Candlemas! We're busy packing away the Christmas things today to make room for a more simple penitential season... I love them all, but I'm happy to have a little more space in my tiny house!
Jenni, it is fun, esp. in small doses. I don't think I could read Shakespeare in the original. I often need someone who can explain what it all means even with modern English. I've been reading some of Joseph Pearce's Nutshell series on Crisis Magazine and holy cow, it made me realize how shallowly I read the Bard. But it's giving me greater enjoyment too now. Ex.: https://www.crisismagazine.com/2021/romeo-and-juliet-in-a-nutshell
I remember you sang with Susan, Faith, but I didn't know she left Stube because of the schola folks. Hehe. Whatever did you do? She loved being at Ave Maria--you simply cannot beat the weather. And it smells heavenly. Dagny said the orange trees are beginning to blossom. It's a wonder you're not tempted to put away Christmas earlier given you have a family of nine. I have most of Christmas packed because we didn't have much out (no tree/ornaments, just a few with the Advent house and candles) but the cards remain. Once I've attended to all the correspondence, I will put the pictures/letters in my photo album. I also like to recycle the pretty pictures for homemade cards :)
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